San Joaquin County farm officials, investigating the unintentional release of powerful herbicides over a wide area of the San Joaquin Delta, today reported public health risks were minimal and the impact on crops is likely far less that initially feared.

The Record

San Joaquin County farm officials, investigating the unintentional release of powerful herbicides over a wide area of the San Joaquin Delta, today reported public health risks were minimal and the impact on crops is likely far less that initially feared.

“The information that we have … is that there are not large concerns with respect to residues and toxicity,” said Gary Caseri, interim county agricultural commissioner.

Because the county continues to investigate the incident, involving several aerial applications over Bouldin Island and Webb Tract in May, officials did not comment about the extent of the spray drift or who might be responsible.

What they did say were the herbicides involved were glyphosate, commonly sold as Roundup or other brand names, and imazapyr, often sold under the brand Polaris.

Farmers had been concerned the presence of the weed killers might make their crops unsuitable for consumption or processing.

However, the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office downplayed that risk.

“Due to the length of time between the leaf samples collected and actual harvest of potentially affected crops, it is likely that residue levels will degrade substantially to levels below the established glyphosate residue tolerances and below detectable levels for imazapyr,” it said in a​news release.

Bruce Blodgett, executive manger of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau, said he was relieved by today’s announcement.

“The best news out of all if this is the chemicals that were used are two of the safest chemicals that can be used,” he said.

​Read Saturday's Record for more on this story by staff writer Reed Fujii.